EVERGREEN SHRUBS. 



healthy as when sheltered by taller evergreens, or located on the sides or at the base 

 of slopes, where they are protected fi^m sudden changes in winter and have the advan- 

 tage of a more humid atmosphere in summer. If we therefore find these conditions 

 most congenial to our native broad-leaved shrubs, Avith how much more force do they 

 apply to those of foreign origin, accustomed to a more uniform climate — less heat and 

 more humiditv. We see the necessity for a modiiication of climate, by sheltering from 

 the excessive aridity of the atmosphere during summer and otherwise protecting from 

 the sudden changes and extreme cold of winter. 



Now let us look at the preparations made for shrubbery in our pleasure grounds. 

 These are for the most part destitute of vegetation capable of affording either shade or 

 shelter. It is a prevalent custom in selecting a location for a countiy residence, for 

 gentlemen to " turn their backs upon the numberless fine sites Avith which our country 

 abounds, and choose the barest and baldest situation in order that they may dig, level, 

 and grade, and spend half their fortunes in doing what nature has, not a mile distant, 

 offered to them ready made, and a thousand times more beautifully done." These 

 "bald and bare" situations have to be planted. Catalogues are ransacked for choice 

 and rare evergi'eens, or, perhaps the nearest forest is searched for a supply. In either 

 case the results are the same — the plants linger out a miserable existence. Some few 

 may ultimately recover the change, but their appearance is anything but ornamental, 

 and the culture of evergreens is forthwith pronounced a failure. 



In planting evergreens, therefore, more particularly those of foreign origin, we must 

 place them in situations similar to their native localities, or otherwise modify extremes 

 in the elements of growth so far as they are under our control. In adapting circum- 

 stances to the growth of plants, there are certain influences which can be modified, and 

 favorable conditions which we can supply. The most favorable conditions are those 

 which involve the least change, and that change the most gradual. It is well known 

 that the early exposure to sun after a severe night's frost, will prove fatal to plants 

 which would remain uninjured under a gradual thaw ; consequently we find plants 

 subjected to a northern exposure surviving through severe winters, while those seem- 

 ingly more favored with a southern aspect will perish. The former never being so 

 greatly excited, is therefore not subjected to so sudden changes, and hence its endurance. 



The hardiness of plants, or the amount of cold they are capable of enduring, is, to a 

 certain extent, dependent upon the nature of the soil in which they are growing, so far 

 at least as concerns its contained moisture. Soil naturally wet produces late growths of 

 succulent, unripened shoots. Early winter frosts acting upon these soft shoots expands 

 the watery matter in their structure and disrupts their tissue. De Caxdolle, in his 

 laws of temperature with respect to its influence on vegetation, remarks that plants 

 resist extremes of temperature in the inverse ratio of the quantity of water they contain. 

 We know the Oak to be a hardy tree ; but if we were to transfer a growing plant from 

 a hot-house to the open air in mid-winter, it would be very likely to perish. The 

 young, immature shoots of our hardiest plants are fre(piently destroyed by late spring 

 frosts, and young plants are destroyed by cold which has no eflect upon older ones of 

 the same species. Hence the necessity of draining soil and allowing the escape of 

 superfluous moisture. A few dollars expended in laying a permanent drain is often the 

 ifterence between failure and success in the cultivation of ])lants. We ha 

 )re, in our power to modify the severity of climate in winter by choosing a 



